South Dakota’s SHAME: The Sentencing of Annette Bosworth, M.D.

Dr. Annette Bosworth, former U.S. Senate Candidate, will be sentenced today for 12 felonies stemming from six pages of her nominating petition that had real voters.

Sentencing will be televised at 2pm central time. The community can’t wait.

Dr. Annette Bosworth is a modern day “Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s play about gossip and innuendo that feeds the fears of a group, taking a once respected woman and ostracizing her from her community.

The petition sheets that got her to today were circulated by her to the Hutterite Colonies in the form that this deeply religious community expects: provided to the elder who takes care of the process. Thirty-seven signatures of over 3000 that she submitted. They wouldn’t have made a difference if she didn’t turn them in, but Bosworth was running against the entrenched elite, so it made a difference to her. In the first quarter of her campaign, she raised over $2 million dollars with the average donation of $45.

The pages were signed during the time Bosworth was on a mission trip. When the elder returned them to her, she signed them as a circulator. Her lawyer, who provided legal advice notarized them.

State law says names must be verified. She was comfortable with the fact that the Hutterite elder oversaw the signing. The petition states “I under oath” witnessed this signatures of those that signed. There is no oath given to any circulator. The ambiguity of protocol for nominating petitions was never corrected. Even the legislature never changed the law and it remains to “verify”. The Attorney General went after her based on the paper, not the law.

It is impossible to tell Dr. Bosworth’s story in one post. I hope you will take the time to read about this mother of three. It is almost certain she will go to jail today. Say a prayer for her young boys.